Today, Sunday, the new school year begins in Jerusalem schools, which are affiliated with the Palestinian Ministry of Education. About 12,000 students are seated on the seats of these schools, distributed over 54 schools in Jerusalem.
These schools and their students face numerous challenges that have doubled this year due to the continued decision of the occupation to close the office of the Palestinian Education Directorate in Jerusalem on the one hand, and because of the continuing Corona virus crisis and disrupting the normal start of the school year on the other hand.
The Faisal Husseini Foundation, which has been working for many years alongside the schools of the occupied city, conducted a study in light of the schools' experience in distance education during the first wave of the virus that swept Palestine in early March.
The study, which included the challenges of Jerusalem schools in the face of Corona, concluded that the students' future is in danger if appropriate measures are not taken, as educational teams and students need 7,000 computers and 150 training courses with the start of the new school year in which face education is combined with distance education And everyone may be forced to switch completely to distance education again.
The Executive Director of the Faisal Husseini Foundation, Fadwa Al-Husseini, expressed to Al-Jazeera Net her concern about the educational future of students if the situation continues as it is and appropriate measures are not taken, and based on the study conducted by her foundation, she believes that the first risk is that schools are unable to reach approximately 35% of I requested it appropriately for reasons related to either the lack of equipment, the weak equipment used, or the students ’unwillingness to communicate.
Two students during one of the projects implemented by the Faisal Husseini Foundation with schools (Al-Jazeera Net)
Many difficulties and costly solutions, and
the second danger, according to Al-Husseini, lies in the fear that the quality of education will decline due to the majority of it focusing on indoctrination education or using simple activities away from dialogue, critical thinking and scientific research.
The Foundation conducted its study on 17 schools, during which it emerged that 54% of the teaching staff needed training in using technology in education, and 45% needed other skills for distance education, and the solution lies in organizing about 150 training courses to cover both fields.
During the study, there was also a need to provide 1015 computers for teachers, and about 5,640 computers for students, at a cost of $ 5 million.
The challenges are not limited to providing computers to help students and teachers engage in the educational process remotely only, but also in providing Jerusalem schools' needs for adequate infrastructure to prevent the virus if it opens its doors throughout the year for students.
And because most of the Palestinian Jerusalem schools are residential buildings, they do not have the specifications that must be met in terms of ventilation, lighting, adequate numbers of sanitary units and potable water taps.
A frontal activity carried out by the Faisal Husseini Foundation with many schools in Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera Net)
Through the study, Fadwa Al-Husseini explained that there must be basic interventions that must be provided in schools in the event of students returning, most notably the provision of a special room for temporary quarantine in the event that an employee or student is overheated, thermometers, masks, gloves and transparent partitions among students inside the classroom. Or provide transparent protectors for the face for all students.
In addition to that, it is necessary to equip everything used by students and teachers to work through the sensors for fear of transmitting infection due to frequent touching, and to provide everything related to the infrastructure in schools, the Faisal Husseini Foundation estimates the cost of this at $ 9.5 million.
Al-Husseini confirms that the future of thousands of students has become threatened due to the epidemic and the challenges that Jerusalem schools face. Based on the data obtained through its studies, the Foundation decided to launch the "Buy a Time in Jerusalem" initiative that was launched by her father, Faisal al-Husseini, months before his departure in 2001.
The morning queue at Al-Nizamiyyah School of the Palestinian Ministry of Education (Al-Jazeera Net)
The initiative aims to support the continued development of the educational process in the occupied city, and to ensure that students receive high-quality education. Fadwa explained that the idea of buying time for Jerusalem schools reflects the importance of time to save the education process in it, and this was translated by providing several options to support schools.
This is done by providing individuals with support according to their capabilities by purchasing minutes or hours for teaching time in Jerusalem schools. Companies and institutions will be able to purchase days or weeks for schools by donating higher amounts of money, while local, Arab and international official funds and institutions will be able to purchase months to support education in City.
The Foundation revealed that the total cost of meeting the requirements of distance education, taking into account the prevention conditions within schools and preparing them to be a safe learning environment and enabling them to continue developing the educational process, amounts to about $ 14.5 million.
Students in the computer lab in a Palestinian school in Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera Net)
An epidemic of education, the
study data and the resulting recommendations, Al-Jazeera Net discussed with the Director of the Jerusalem Affairs Unit in the Palestinian Ministry of Education, Dima Al-Samman, who said that the ministry has been suffering for decades from many challenges in Jerusalem due to the falsification and distortion of the Palestinian curriculum and the attempt to completely institutionalize education in the city. This year, the Corona epidemic has increased the concerns and obstacles of schools.
She added that the concerns are great this year due to the severe shortage in the number of classrooms, by 2,500 rooms, and because of the lack of adequate ventilation in the classrooms, in addition to the difficulty of implementing social distancing in light of the narrow spaces of schools.
According to Al-Samman, one of the measures taken by the ministry is summarizing textbooks, extracting butter from them, and collecting them in an educational package that will be given to students throughout the year.
She also touched on the ministry’s launch of an educational satellite channel, in cooperation with the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, through which it will broadcast lessons for the four most important courses: Arabic, English, mathematics and science.